Chapter 5: Making the Case for Mesearch: Legitimizing Race/Ethnicity Research

At the core of scientific research production is the desire to create new knowledge. At our highest ideals, that new knowledge is used to improve our society. When that occurs, it makes publishing scientific research a noble pursuit. However, it is no secret that scientific research on race/ethnicity has a long ignoble and horrid history (Avery et al., 2018; Harper, 2012; Kendi, 2017). The genesis of this research endeavored to prove the superiority of White people over non-White people and was used to support the enslavement, maltreatment, and discrimination of Black, Indigenous, and other non-White people (Kendi, 2017). While oppressed people have always been the leading freedom fighters against their oppression and the tools that were used to oppress them, the race/ethnicity research that organizational psychologists published did not begin to shift from these racists roots until the 1970s (Roberson et al., 2017). Notably, scholars of color led this research focus shift (Cox & Blake, 1991; Nkomo, 1992; Outtz, 1976; Thomas, 1993; Williams & O’Reilly, 1998), and as this shift occurred, some inside and outside of the field maligned their scientific research as mesearch.